ECAC hockey tourney to return to Lake Placid

ALBANY - An official New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority said, when the ECAC Hockey moved its championship weekend out of Lake Placid 10 years ago, "they'll be back. Some day, they'll want to come back."

It's been those 10 years, and according to several sources, the league will return to Lake Placid's Herb Brooks Arena for the 2014 championships.

The New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) has scheduled a press conference for 11 a.m. Tuesday where a major announcement will be made.

A press release from ORDA read that the group would "host a major multi-year sporting event commencing in 2014."

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"It is a done deal, or will be," said one ECAC source who asked for anonymity.

It's believed the agreement between the league and ORDA will be a three-year deal, though the source wasn't sure.

"It could be one, it could be five ... not sure," the source said.

Jon Lundin, ORDA Communications Manager said the announcement deals with "a winter team sport" but declined to confirm that the ECAC Championships weekend was the subject.

Officials at the ECACH offices in the Times Union Center declined to comment.

The ECAC held its championship at Lake Placid's Brooks Arena for 10 years (1993-2002).

The ECACH tournament championships (semifinals, consolation game and championship game) will end a three-year run at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall at the end of the upcoming season.

"Our program will do everything we can to make sure our team is there (in the semis) for a long time," Appert added.

For two years, 1991 and 1992, both conferences held their championships on the same weekend at Boston Garden - the weekend was termed "Hockeyfest" - but attendance for the ECAC games waned and the league moved its finals to Lake Placid in 1993.

Clarkson, Harvard, Cornell and St. Lawrence each won two league titles during the 10-year period at Lake Placid - RPI and Princeton the other two - the event moved to Albany in 2004. Some of the league's more eastern-located schools had sought a more centralized site.

Albany's Pepsi Arena (now Times Union Center) housed the championship for eight years but without RPI or Union reaching the semifinals (the Dutchmen finally did in 2010), attendance twice dropped below 10,000 for the weekend and the Princeton-Harvard title game in 2008 drew just 4,851.

By then, the ECACH had accepted a three-year bid from Atlantic City but in each of the previous two years, only about 7,500 fans showed up for the weekend, about 4,126 and 4,131 for the championship games.

Union beat Harvard 3-1 for the championship on March 17 at Boardwalk Hall.